Berri: Don't Push Me to Tell Who is Obstructing Cabinet Line-Up
Speaker Nabih Berri said he knows the “secret” behind the delay in the cabinet formation but prefers not to be “provoked” into disclosing it to the public, al-Joumhouria daily reported Saturday.
“I know where the problem is, and I know the secret behind the obstructions. Don't provoke us to make us announce it frankly and publicly,” sources close to Berri quoted him as saying.
The sources pointed to some attempts aiming to hold the AMAL Movement responsible for the cabinet delay, “some want to blame us, but they can't hold us responsible. We are not the problem. Things are clear on our part. Let them search for the solution somewhere else, it is in their own hands.”
Berri however said: “Everyone knows that President Michel Aoun, Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri and myself have agreed during our meeting at Babbada to form a cabinet of 30 minsters. We were not the ones who retracted, but they were.”
Aoun and Hariri are still struggling to put together a new cabinet amid conflicting demands from the political forces that are seeking to join the unity government.
The formation process made major progress on Monday and Tuesday after the political parties reached a settlement over the thorny issue of the public works portfolio. Under the settlement, the Marada Movement will be given the public works portfolio while the Lebanese Forces will get the health portfolio.
But horsetrading resumed when it was agreed to form a 30-member cabinet instead of 24, where the disagreement lingers on the additional six state ministers and their distribution on the political parties.
17 December 2016, 09:00
00
Who is he talking to? He's the one obstructing, everyone knows that. He was appointed to obstruct as long as he could. Aoun knows it. Hariri knows it.
17 December 2016, 09:25
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Do we want to solve the root cause of the problem or the consequences of the problem? In the past decades we focussed only to solve the consequences, never thought of the root cause which is the feudal system. The reality is that we have been brought up to depend on our community and our political and religious leaders, we strive to be independent, but do we really know what is independent? First step could be to emancipate ourselves from this political system, unfortunately the feudal system is in our culture.
17 December 2016, 09:27
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Few centuries ago any person who thought that the earth is not flat was killed..
The Lebanese (ordinary) people, all of them, dream of peace, justice,equality and fair employment opportunities . To achieve this dream, you have to get rid of the feudal system, this system is a product of the constitution which is :politics based on religion; this fact garanteed a recepy to ensure continuous division among the people, and the population will never be a nation .Lebanese people wake up , The Earth is not flat.
17 December 2016, 14:36
03
He looks like a corpse yet still has the energy for politics? The appetite for power is surely an evil thing. These leaders have one foot on the ground and the other in their grave yet they still want to rule people. Don't they know that God will ask them on the day of judgement about their rulership? About the money they stole, about the corruption, about the poor, about the oppressed in their land, about a whole bunch of things.. I look at berri and i say thank God for not making me a politician and for not having any desire to be one.
17 December 2016, 18:19
11
This guy is the perfect example of what is wrong with Lebanese politics! Mafia corruption at it's purest!
